The deployment of a software application may involve a variety of operations, for example, configuring the application into a form that is executable, configuring an environment capable of executing the application, and placing the application in the environment. Once the application is successfully deployed, it can be tested for quality assurance and/or may be placed in a production environment for consumer use. Software applications are generally regarded as dynamic files that involve special and/or specific processings or configurations in order to properly prepare the files for execution on a desired computer system. This is in contrast to static files, such as text files and PDF files, that are retrieved and viewed the same way even on different computer systems.
The deployment of a dynamic application may need to set customized parameters for the application. For example, the application may or may not have dependencies to other designated files, may need access to selected databases, and/or may need other types of settings to be configured in order to ensure proper execution of the application. Additionally, different parameters may be set and/or different operations may be performed in order to configure an application for deployment depending on the type of environment it is to execute on. For example, an application may be deployed differently for a quality assurance environment than for a production environment. Applications of different types are handled differently from one another. For example, a J2EE application will typically involve different parameters and different deployment operations to be performed than for a business intelligence application such as forms files and reports files, or a CGI script file, and other file types. Some file types need to be compiled before deployment.
Due to the dynamic nature of applications and their deployment, the deployment process has traditionally relied on manual operations performed by an experienced operator. In one example, a software developer who desires to deploy a file would upload the file to a server and submit a service request to a deployment operator to deploy the file. The deployment operator would retrieve the file and prepare the file for deployment based on, for example, selected parameters, special instructions, or other types of settings that may be requested by the software developer. Other parameters and operations may also need to be performed based on the type of file being deployed and the run-time environment in which the application will execute in. The deployment process is typically time consuming and tedious, and is susceptible to operator errors. Furthermore, once an application is deployed, correction of errors and product enhancements generally mean the application will continually be re-deployed and go through the deployment process numerous times.